Method and Apparatus for Locating a Mooring Beacon

ABSTRACT

A remote controlled lighted mooring beacon is adapted to be secured to a mooring ball. The beacon includes a central shaft of a mooring stick. A ballast at the base of the shaft contains at least one battery which supplies the ballast for the mooring stick. A float surrounds a middle portion of the mooring stick and is located along the shaft between the top of the shaft and the ballast. An electronics package is located on the shaft including a receiver that responds to a wireless code for generating an activation signal. A 360 degree viewable high intensity light source is on top of the shaft, is daylight visible and is activated by the actuation. A conductor is connected from the at least one battery in the ballast to the electronics package and the light source for the powering thereof for at least one boating season.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims rights under 35 USC §119(e) from U.S.Application Ser. No. 61/855,090 filed May 8, 2013, the contents of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

This invention relates to moorings and more particularly to a method andapparatus for locating a mooring by illuminating a high power lightsource atop a buoyed mooring stick in which the light source is underthe control of a remote control transmitter, with the power source forthe buoy including batteries forming the ballast for the buoy. Thebattery weight and size determines the ballast and provides forseason-long operation.

BACKGROUND

It will be appreciated that sailing vessels such as sailboats andmotorboats require a mooring or boat slip to attach to when coming intoport. Leaving a mooring is not an issue. Rather finding the mooringagain or finding a guest mooring at the end of a boating event isoftentimes a problem. Moorings may be marked by color, number or otherindicia. However, regardless of whether the mooring is identified, itmay not be viewable from a distance or may be obscured by fog or otherboats in the area.

In broad daylight, experienced sailors who have identified their mooringlocation before departure, find it difficult to find the mooring after arace. Either the indicia was rotated away from view, or other boats hadsince moved, or the line-up with a land marker had shifted. And thisproblem locating a mooring happens in a field as small as about 30moorings. Add to this basic dilemma a heavy breeze, a few extra boatsall searching for their mooring, particularly as they all come in aftera race, a larger more crowded mooring field, and there could becollisions from boats tacking in close quarters, all trying to findtheir moorings.

For instance, in Marblehead Harbor alone there are 2600 moorings, withthe boats moored side-by-side with very little maneuvering room. Whencoming into the harbor it is oftentimes not possible to even see themooring for which one is headed and certainly not to be able to identifyit at any distance. This is even further complicated by fog or indriving rain such that it is oftentimes impossible to locate the correctmooring buoy. In such a situation ordinarily a boat has to circle themooring field a number of times in order to be able to identify thecorrect mooring.

Some prior systems for indicating buoy location by lights atop the buoyare designed for buoys that carry large heavy battery packs rechargedwith wave action and are totally unsuitable for use as mooring stickscommon with recreational boating moorings. These buoys are difficult toremove from the water at the end of the season and difficult towaterproof. Other prior systems for indicating mooring location bylights atop the mooring are designed to be powered by solar cell arrays.It will be appreciated that solar cells used to power illuminated buoysare too unwieldy to be conveniently plucked from the water. Otherrecreational boating devices that require wave action energy are simplytoo cumbersome for use on seasonal mooring sticks. Further, prior artlighted mooring sticks lack an adequate counterweight for keeping thestick upright.

For instance the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,126 does notcarry the power source at the base of the mooring stick but ratherlocates the apparatus for powering the light in the buoyant centralpackage midway up the mooring stick and thus provides no ballasting.U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,243 requires a rechargeable battery which eitherrequires solar cells or wave action to recharge the battery. This typeof system precludes its use on a mooring stick.

It will be appreciated that long life for a lighted mooring beacon isimportant so that it can last an entire boating season without batteryreplacement. This is because access to the mooring is not convenient inmany instances and battery replacement or recharging is a nuisance. Thispower problem is particularly severe when one attempts to utilize a highintensity strobe light to identify the position of a mooring stick.Without a significant power source that can operate for a whole boatingseason, strobe-based systems are not useful in mooring beacons.

It is therefore important to provide a mooring beacon with a very highintensity 360° viewable light source on top of a mooring stick that canbe viewed from far away and yet has enough power in reserve so that themooring beacon can be installed and used for entire boating season.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The subject method and apparatus for identifying a mooring solves theabove-mentioned problems by providing a remote controlled mooring beaconhaving a 360 degree viewable high intensity light source atop a buoyedmooring stick in which the mooring stick is ballasted by a battery packat its lower end, with the batteries being of sufficient size to last anentire boating season. The batteries are also of sufficient weight toprovide enough ballast so that the mooring stick stays upright even inheavy seas. Note the entire mooring beacon is waterproof. The subjectmooring beacon allows the boat owner to plan his approach to the mooringfield with sufficient time to prevent dangerous, quick and unexpectedturns in tight places, with the mooring beacon seen easily.

More particularly, the batteries replace the traditional lead weight atthe bottom of a mooring stick. With the heavy batteries at the base ofthe mooring stick and with a buoyant float in the middle portion, thelarge batteries permit not only season-long powering of a very highintensity light source for identifying the location of the mooringstick, but also provide ballasting of the mooring stick even in heavyseas. In one embodiment, the batteries weigh 4-5 pounds. The mooringstick itself may extend approximately 3 feet above the buoyant float andapproximately 1 foot below the buoyant float. With this configurationthe batteries create a sufficient righting moment.

The light atop the mooring stick is a powerful 360 degree-viewable lightsource which is turned on by remote control signals transmitted to areceiver carried by the mooring beacon from a transponder set to theindividual frequency or code assigned to the mooring beacon, with themooring beacon actuatable from up to three quarters of a mile away.

It will be appreciated that the high intensity light source in oneembodiment can be a strobe light which is viewable for instance up to amile from the mooring. Alternatively, the high intensity light sourcecan be formed from an array of LED lamps arranged in so that they pointin varying directions for 360 degree coverage. If the individual LEDsare insufficiently bright to provide for the requisite illumination,multiple LEDs can be packaged in a module. These modules are thenarranged to provide the required 360 degree coverage. Each of thesemodules may contain for instance from 3 to 20 individual LED lamps toprovide for the requisite intensity. Commonly available LED lights onlypoint in one direction and do not provide 360 degree coverage. Howeverwith multiple LEDs arranged as described above, the subject mooringbeacon is readily viewable in bright sunlight, at night and in fog.

Moreover, in one embodiment, the mooring beacon receiver can be turnedoff completely when stored and automatically turns off the highintensity light source after a predetermined period of time to minimizebattery drainage. Further, a beeping sound system can be attached asdesired and timed with the flashing light source.

The subject beacon system can also be used in harbors where the harbormaster controls the use of guest moorings. Rather than pointing thecustomer in the vague direction of the intended mooring, a transpondercould be taken from a rack containing one for each mooring. Then uponactuation by the harbormaster, the customer could sail or motor to theilluminated mooring with assurance that he or she is finding the rightmooring. A rack of transponders can also be a handy reference to theharbormaster to see at a glance which moorings have been rented bynoting the transponder that is out of the rack.

In addition the subject beacon system can be used to locate boat slipsfor the owner or guest so that they may safely navigate into the slip bythemselves. Since many such slips look alike even to an owner, it isimportant to be able to identify the correct slip so that the boated canenter the correct slip.

When the mooring beacon light is placed at a slip, the beacon can beremotely activated from a boat or by a dockmaster to indicate which slipis available. When numbers of boats are coming in for dock space, onlyone mooring beacon is activated at a time by the dockmaster who canselectively address the mooring beacons and then extinguish them after aboat is successfully docked. Also the individual beacons can be eithercolor-coded or flashed in a coded fashion to indicate to an incomingboater which slip he or she is to enter.

Additional advantages to the use of the subject device is to preventboat collisions and in changing weather conditions and in crowdedharbors. Also accidental misuse of another's mooring which requires aharbormaster to come out and a move boats off a mooring is avoided. Thesubject device also serves as an aid to the accurate location ofmoorings and boat slips. Thus the subject mooring beacon can be avaluable safety and navigational tool for the boating consumer.

Note, when the mooring beacon is used as a mooring stick, it is tetheredto a mooring ball by a chain. A user should be able to grab the mooringstick and move it onto the boat so that the chain is decleated.

In summary, a floatable remote-controllable mooring beacon is providedthat incorporates either a 360 degree array of high intensity LEDS or ahigh-intensity flash lamp on the top of a mooring stick, with themooring stick ballasted by the batteries used to power the mooringbeacon for the entire boating season.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of the disclosure will be better understood inconnection with the Detailed Description in conjunction with theDrawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of the entry of a boat into aharbor searching for a mooring with an individual on the boat signalingthe mooring beacon to illuminate, thereby to indicate the direction andplacement of the mooring.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the mooring beacon of FIG. 1,indicating the extension of a shaft above a float carrying a receiverpackage and a high-intensity light source capable of being viewed 360degrees.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the top portion of the mooringbeacon of FIG. 2 illustrating the encapsulation of a receiver and theplacement of a high intensity strobe light atop the shaft.

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration showing the utilization of abattery package to ballast the mooring beacon of FIG. 1, with the shaftbeing utilized as a mooring stick and having a float and thereceiver/light assembly on the shaft, showing the relative length of theshaft extending below the float and the relative length of the shaftextending above the float, thus to raise up the high intensity lightsource to give maximal visibility for the beacon while at the same timeproviding an appropriate righting moment for the mooring beacon due tothe battery package at the bottom of the shaft.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of a handheld transponder for useby a mariner on a boat seeking to activate the mooring beacon of FIGS.1, 2 and 3.

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic illustration of a dual battery pack assemblyfor use in the mooring beacon of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, showing a low voltagesource to power the receiver in the mooring beacon and a higher voltagesource to power a high intensity light source.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of the utilization of a number ofLED modules mounted in a circle and aimed in different directions toprovide 360° high intensity coverage for the mooring beacon of FIGS. 1,2 and 3.

FIG. 8A is a top view of the location of batteries in a cylindricalhousing for use in the battery package of FIG. 3.

FIG. 8B is a side view of the placement of batteries within the batterypackage of FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9 is a diagrammatic illustration of the utilization of the subjectremote controllable beacon to indicate which of a plurality of docks isindicated as being available for an incoming vessel under the control ofa dockmaster.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to FIG. 1, a crowded harbor 10 is shown having a number ofmooring balls 12 located throughout the harbor to which sailing vessels14 are moored. It will be seen that due to the densely packed harbor itis very difficult for an incoming vessel 16 to be able to locate aparticular mooring ball, here shown at 18, due to the number of boats inthe way and due to the similarity of all of the mooring balls 12.

While the moorings themselves are numbered or provided with otherindicia and while if the boater is familiar with the harbor and knowsthe location of boats adjacent his mooring, it is still nonethelessdifficult at times for the boater to ascertain which mooring is his. Theproblem exacerbated when boats that usually sit around his mooring haveleft their moorings. Thus there is no visual cue as to which of the manymoorings in the crowded mooring field is the boater's mooring.

In order for the mooring beacon 18 to be identified, a boater on avessel 16 activates the transponder 17 to wirelessly activate theassociated mooring beacon 18 through an transmission 20 which causes ahigh intensity light source 22 to illuminate. This illumination may bevisible for at least 100 yards and permits the boater to maneuver hisvessel as illustrated by the dotted line 24 towards his mooring beacon18.

The mooring beacon 18 is of sufficient intensity and omnidirectionalitythat regardless of the crowding of the harbor and orientation of themooring beacon, the mooring beacon is easily visible not only at nightbut also in fog and during the day.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the mooring beacon 18 is comprised of a shaft30 that extends through a float 32 in and carries a receiver unit 34adapted to receive the wireless signals from the wireless transmitter ona vessel entering the harbor. This signal may be coded such that theonly mooring beacon 18 that has its high power light source activated isthe one that corresponds in code or frequency to the transponderactuated. On top of the receiver housing is a high intensityomnidirectional light source 36 which is visible at large distances dueto the high intensity of the light source 36, be it a strobe light inone embodiment or a plurality of LEDs aimed around the compass points toprovide 360° coverage. The bottom portion 40 of the shaft 30 is providedwith a battery package 42 which will be described hereinafter but whosefunction is not only to power the mooring beacon 18 but also to providea ballast to make sure that the shaft 30 is in an upright position as itfloats on the surface the ocean or lake.

Referring to FIG. 3, the upper portion of the mooring beacon 18 of FIG.2 is shown in which at the top of the shaft 30 is a waterproof housing34 which carries a receiver for receiving coded signals from atransponder. Housing 34 also includes switching circuits for connectingthe power from the battery package 42 carried at the base of the shaft30 to both the receiver within housing 34 and also to the high intensitylight source 36 which is illustrated as a flash lamp strobe. Thereceiver may be a conventional receiver such as found in garage dooropeners along with conventional switches normally used in suchapplications.

It be appreciated that the housing and all components are madewaterproof so that they will operate at least for a season and longer.The components may be hermetically sealed.

Referring back to FIG. 2, in one embodiment, the shaft 30 and attendanthardware performs the function of a mooring stick which is attached to amooring ball by a chain. After the boater identifies his mooring andcomes up to it, he may pluck the mooring stick out of the water andsecure the mooring ball to a bow cleat. Is important to note that theweight of the entire mooring with shaft 30, high intensity light source36, receiver 34 and battery package 42 is kept under 10 pounds, andpreferably lighter so that it may be easily brought aboard the boat.

More particularly, and referring now to FIG. 4, the shaft 30 is shown topass through the float 32 such that an upper portion 50 extends upwardlyfrom the float 32 by a distance illustrated by arrow 54 of approximately3 feet in one embodiment. Beneath the float is a portion of the shaft 56having a battery package 42 secured to the distal end of shaft 30, withshaft portion 56 extending as illustrated by arrow 58 1 to 2 feet belowthe float 32. In one embodiment, the weight of the battery package isbetween 4 and 10 pounds to give sufficient righting moment to themooring such that it remains upright in all sea conditions.

The mooring beacon 18 is provided with an on-off switch 60 such that themooring beacon can be actuated when placed adjacent a mooring ball. Hereit will be seen that the 360 degree high intensity light source 36 maybe in the form of a strobe light which is visible for a mile or more.Alternatively, and as shown in FIG. 7, the high intensity light sourcemay be made of a plurality of light emitting diodes mounted around theperiphery of a circular support so that they face outwardly and provide360 degree visibility. If the individual light emitting diodes are notsufficiently intense, they may be located in mini flashlight modulessuch that the light emitted in one direction is spread out by the numberflash light modules. Note that each flashlight module may incorporate anumber of LEDs. The LEDs may be programmed to blink in a strobe-likemanner to be easily visible. The LEDs may be programmed to blink afinite number of times, such as not more than 5 blinks for a singleactivation. Controlling the blinking limits light pollution in theharbor.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 a typical transponder 62 is shown with anactivation button 64 to cause the transponder 62 to transmit a codedsignal which is picked up by the mooring beacon 18.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a dual battery pack 70 includes a pair ofbatteries 72 connected in series, the output of which is 3 V and anumber of batteries 74 connected in series to produce a combined outputof 9 V. The output from the low voltage source over is coupled to aswitch module 80 which is activated by a receiver 34 (not shown in thisfigure) so that under normal operation the low-voltage 3 V is applied toa receiver 34 mounted atop the shaft 30.

When the mooring is actuated by a remote RF signal, switch module 80connects the high-voltage from batteries 74 to power the high intensitylight source 36. When this light source 36 is a strobe as illustrated,its power drain is significant and requires the higher voltage tosustain his high power output.

However, as illustrated in FIG. 7, if the high intensity light source 36may be comprised of LED modules 86 each pointed in a different directionaround a periphery, then the drain on battery 74 may be significantlyreduced while at the same time providing for the required high intensityomnidirectional output. As mentioned above, if individual light emittingdiodes mounted around the periphery of a support, for instance support90, are insufficiently bright to provide visibility over long ranges,aggregates of LEDs may be mounted in modules to provide high intensitylight in one direction. In this case a number of these modules may bearrayed around in a circle on support 90 such that while the beam widthis relatively narrow for each of these modules, the use of multiplemodules pointing in different directions permits omnidirectional highintensity light to be propagated out across the harbor.

Referring now to FIG. 8A, in one embodiment, a housing 100 houses anumber of cylindrical batteries 102 in a triangular configuration. Thebatteries are kept in place by spacers 104 so as to make sure they donot become dislodged. Referring to FIG. 8B, housing 100 is shown withbatteries 102 mounted vertically within the housing and connected bycontacts 106 and 108 to keep the batteries in place. The batteries maybe replaced through a lower portion 110 of housing 100 which is anchoredin place through a pin or screw 112. In another embodiment, a singlebattery may be utilized to power the mooring beacon 18, if sizedproperly. The battery or batteries forming the ballast of the mooringbeacon 18 may be rechargeable and may be recharged from a connectionport (not shown) mounted at an upper portion 50 of the shaft 30.

It will be appreciated that what is provided is a mooring beacon whichfloats next to a mooring ball and is tethered thereto such that themooring beacon is actuated remotely by transponder and is provided witha high intensity omnidirectional light source visible over largedistances, thus to be able to identify the particular mooring for theboater seeking to moor his boat. In one embodiment, the receiverutilized to activate the high intensity light source turns off the highintensity light source after predetermined time so as to minimizebattery drain.

With the batteries located at the distal end of the shaft of the mooringbeacon and since these batteries must of necessity weigh enough to keepthe mooring shaft vertically oriented, these batteries are designed notonly to ballast the mooring beacon but also to permit season-long usageof the mooring beacon without replacement. It is noted that for marineuse, all of the above components are waterproof and sealed such thatcorrosion is avoided as well as internal shorting for the components ofthe mooring beacon.

While the above operation has been described in connection with mooringballs, it will be appreciated that this floating device may be anchoredto a pier or dock slip to indicate to an incoming boater where he or sheis to dock his vessel. The actuation of the mooring beacon is the sameas discussed hereinbefore. Moreover, these mooring beacons can beactuated for instance by a dockmaster or harbormaster to indicate whichof the slips is available for use. In this case, the remote control unitis utilized to actuate a particular mooring beacon, which actuation isunder the control of the harbormaster or dockmaster instead of theoperator of the vessel.

More particularly, and referring now to FIG. 9, it will be seen that adock house 120 is provided with a number of transponders 122. Thesetransponders correspond to docks 1-5, with the transponders forming ahead end control system and actuated to actuate a corresponding highintensity light source at the end of the appropriate dock. Here a numberof docks 124 are illustrated as being Docks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. At the end ofeach of these docks is an illuminable remote-controllable light sourceon a pole such as indicated at 126, 128, 130, 132 and 134. When thedockmaster wishes to indicate that the that Dock Number 2 is available,he activates the transponder 122 corresponding to Dock Number 2, atwhich point the high intensity light source at 128 is illuminated toindicate the dock to which a boater is to tie up. Thus, the vesseltravels along dotted line 140 to the near side of Dock Number 2 asillustrated.

In this manner the dockmaster or harbormaster can indicate which dock isavailable for an incoming vessel. In this case either the mooring beaconcan be floated at the end of the dock or the shaft portion merelyphysically attached to the end of the dock, with the operation of thebeacon being as mentioned hereinbefore.

While the present invention has been described in connection with thepreferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understoodthat other similar embodiments may be used or modifications or additionsmay be made to the described embodiment for performing the same functionof the present invention without deviating therefrom. Therefore, thepresent invention should not be limited to any single embodiment, butrather construed in breadth and scope in accordance with the recitationof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A remote controlled lighted mooring beaconadapted to be secured to a mooring ball, comprising: a central shaft ofa mooring stick; a ballast at the base of said shaft containing at leastone battery which supplies the ballast for the mooring stick; a floatsurrounding a middle portion of the mooring stick and located along saidshaft between the top of said shaft and said ballast; an electronicspackage located on said shaft including a receiver that responds to awireless code for generating an activation signal; a 360 degree viewablehigh intensity light source on top of said shaft being daylight visibleand activated by said actuation signal; and, a conductor connected fromthe at least one battery in said ballast to said electronics package andlight source for the powering thereof for at least one boating season.2. The beacon of claim 1, further comprising a transmitter fortransmitting the wireless code to said electronics package for theactivation of said high intensity light source.
 3. The beacon of claim1, wherein said ballast consists of the at least one battery.
 4. Thebeacon of claim 1, wherein said shaft has sufficient strength to carrysaid electronics package and is long enough for retrieving said mooringbeacon.
 5. The beacon of claim 1, wherein said electronics package, highintensity light source and ballast containing said batteries arewaterproof.
 6. The beacon of claim 1, wherein said ballasting batterieshave a battery life sufficient to power said high intensity light sourcein intermittent usage for at least 6 months.
 7. The beacon of claim 1,and further including a power switch on said electronics package fordisconnecting the power from said battery to said electronics package toconserve power.
 8. The beacon of claim 1, wherein the central shaft isat least four feet long and the beacon weighs less than ten pounds.
 9. Amethod for extending the lifetime of a remote controlled illuminatedmooring mooring stick having a lighted end and a float located along thelength thereof, comprising the steps of: locating a battery pack at theend of the mooring stick opposite the lighted end such that the weightof the batteries provide a ballast to maintain the mooring stickupright.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the lighted mooring stickincludes a flash lamp and wherein the batteries are of sufficient sizeto maintain operation of the remote controlled illuminated mooringbeacon for a boating season.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein theboating season extends for at least three months.
 12. The method ofclaim 9, wherein said high intensity light source includes one of astrobe light and a series of LEDs.
 13. A system for indicating the dockto which a vessel approaching a series of docks is to be used in themooring of the vessel, comprising: a mooring beacon having a receiveradapted to receive activation signals from a transponder for activatinga high intensity light source thereon, said mooring beacon fixedlyattached to one of said docks; and, a transponder transmitting a codecompatible with said mooring beacon for sending said activation signalsto said mooring beacon to activate said high intensity light source,whereby the dock to which a vessel is to be moored can be selected byactivating the corresponding mooring beacon.
 14. The system of claim 12,and further including a plurality of said mooring beacons, each of saidmooring beacons assigned to a different one of said docks.
 15. Thesystem of claim 13, and further including a like number of transponders,one each associated with a different one of said plurality of saidmooring beacons, a particular one of said mooring beacons beingactuatable by a corresponding transponder.
 16. The system of claim 14,and further including a head end control comprising said number oftransponders, wherein the head end control is operated by a harbormaster to identify a mooring for a visiting boat.